1. Field
This disclosure generally relates to the field of gaming. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a hybrid game.
2. General Background
Over the past 15 years, many lotteries have experienced an erosion of net profit margins primarily as the result of sales shifts from higher margin product segments like numbers and lotto games to lower margin product segments like instant games. In 1992, for example, higher margin games made up approximately two thirds of total U.S. lottery sales and instant games represented less than a third of total U.S. lottery sales. By 2007, traditional higher margin games represented slightly more than one third of total U.S. lottery sales while instant sales had grown to over one half of total U.S. lottery sales. Typical instant games currently carry prize costs that are approximately thirty percent greater than corresponding traditional numbers, lotto and raffle games.
The result of this shift in sales to lower margin products has allowed sales to grow, but at the expense of net profit margins. Since 2005, several lotteries have suffered year-over-year declines in net profits despite having achieved record or near-record annual sales levels.